As I learned more about how to better run my business, I realized that nearly every one of these situations of unfortunate firing or employee quitting directly pointed back to my inability to communicate. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t as though I was completely and utterly responsible fully for what other staff members were doing that led to their termination but prior to things getting so bad that somebody needed to be fired, I needed to act and did not.

As an example, let’s say that a staff member walks in 20 minutes late for work. As they walk in door, you glance in their direction. They now know you know that they were late. But yet you don’t say anything about it. Let’s say it happens again very next day, and you notice it too – you see him coming in, and they don’t say anything and you don’t say anything about it. Do you think after a while, that employee might think it is acceptable to come in 20 minutes late — that you already know it, and since you don’t say anything it must be alright? That’s possibly just first time where things were not okay with a particular staff member but it created a license on part of a staff member to kind of push edge of envelope since it doesn’t seem like you’ll do anything to exert proper discipline. If you just would have said to staff member who came in late: “Hey, what happened? You’re late.” in a very friendly manner and heard what they had to say and just acknowledged it, that might have handled it all by itself and things would have been fine. But you didn’t, because it was a little uncomfortable for you. But it is a whole lot easier to confront it at that time than it is to deal with more serious disciplinary actions later, because you wouldn’t hold your position as an executive.

This article is based on following book: First, Break All The Rules ‘What The World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently’ By Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman Simon & Schuster 271 pages

Based on a mammoth research study conducted by Gallup Organization involving 80,000 managers across different industries, this book explores challenge of many companies - attaining, keeping and measuring employee satisfaction. Discover how great managers attract, hire, focus, and keep their most talented employees!

Key Ideas: 1. The best managers reject conventional wisdom. 2. The best managers treat every employee as an individual. 3. The best managers never try to fix weaknesses; instead they focus on strengths and talent. 4. The best managers know they are on stage everyday. They know their people are watching every move they make. 5. Measuring employee satisfaction is vital information for your investors. 6. People leave their immediate managers, not companies they work for. 7. The best managers are those that build a work environment where employees answer positively to these 12 Questions:

a. Do I know what is expected of me at work? b. Do I have materials and equipment I need to do my work right? c. At work, do I have opportunity to do what I do best everyday? d. In last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work? e. Does my supervisor or someone at work seem to care about me as a person? f. Is there someone at work who encourages my development? g. At work, do my opinions seem to count? h. Does mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important? i. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work? j. Do I have a best friend at work? k. In last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress? l. This last year, have I had opportunity at work to learn and grow?

The Gallup study showed that those companies that reflected positive responses to 12 questions profited more, were more productive as business units, retained more employees per year, and satisfied more customers.